ICME 8 - Topic Group 19

Presentation Summary

A Function Teaching Material From a New Perspective of Learning

Eiichi Tukamoto

Yasutetsu
Gomi

Kanji Akahori

Fujitsu Co.

Suwanishi Public Elementary
School

Tokyo Institute of Technology

&lt Outline &gt

Students have had problems understanding function, compared with other
mathematics areas, because of their inability to understand numerical
correspondence. In addition, Japanese educational reform is
progressing
based on a new idea named New Perspective of Learning instead of
conventional educational methods which focuses on memorization. Based
on
New Perspective of Learning, a new function material was developed in
this study, with computer simulation and audio-visual function in
multimedia.

1. A New Perspective of Learning

In Japan, educational reform is progressing which emphasizes a new,
New
Perspective of Learning, instead of conventional educational methods
which
focus of memorization. Its concrete ideas are as follows:

(1) Development of Self-Oriented Learning

Development of pupils motivation to study by themselves and
their ability
to aggressively react to social changes.

(2) Development of Ability to Use Information

Development of basic skills to actively select information and
means to
obtain information as well as skills to use information effectively.

(3) Educational Practice Based on A New Perspective of Learning

Development of pupils ability to find problems, actively
think, evaluate,
describe their thought, and solve the effectively problems.

2. Outline of The Function Teaching Material

From the hypothesis---pupils lack the basic ability to find
two functional
variables in their daily life and to understand the relationships
between
the variables---daily matters were chosen for the teaching material.

(1) Objectives and Characteristics Of The Material

To interest pupils in function by presenting dynamic images
about the
relationships of the two valuables, time and height of the surface of
the water, in the area of direct proportion and linear function.
To help pupils understand relative changes of two valuables in
the two
dimensions (presented in the graphs), by presenting visual images of
height of the surface of the water which changes in accordance with
time
whose change was replaced by the movement of the button in the two
dimensions.

3. Evaluation

To see whether the pupils who could not understand the relative
change
between the two variables (time and water height), find the change of
water
height in accordance with time by moving the time axis with the mouse
and
describe the change in a graph.
To see whether the pupils who could see the correspondence of the
two
variables as a point, but had difficulty understand continuous change
of the
two variables understand that the changes make continuous lines by
recording
the corresponding points with the mouse.